Apples and Cherries
by ElsBells
Summary: Rucy AU. Rachel had been stealing apples from the tree in her neighbor's backyard for as long as she could remember. One day that neighbor becomes Lucy Fabray.


AN: My birthday gift to you all! I'd love to continue this if I ever have the time.

**Apples and Cherries**

Rachel had been stealing apples from the tree in her neighbor's backyard for as long as she could remember. But she was only nine, so it wasn't _that_ long. And it was only fruit. It came from the earth, so logically, it should belong to everybody, right?

Nobody had even lived in the bright blue house until the Fabrays moved in a couple days ago. Rachel had sat on the curb outside of her own house, a "whipped coffee cream" color as her dads described it, and watched the movers unload a truck full of boxes and dark wood furniture and rugs, rolled up like Jolly Ranchers and slung solidly over their shoulders.

She'd seen a man, tall and stocky and wearing a patterned tie with his sleeves pulled up, directing them where to put everything.

Rachel was disappointed. She'd sort of hoped they'd have a son or daughter her age. Somebody who would be guaranteed to play with her, being neighbors and all. But she'd sighed easily and pulled herself up with the mailbox and skipped back inside to ask her daddies if they wanted to dance with her.

After a day, she still hadn't seen anybody going in or out of the neighbor's house. Not that she was spying on them or anything. It was just a long, _boring_ weekend.

"They're just settling in, honey." Her dad explained over pancakes one morning. "I'm sure we'll all be introduced soon."

Rachel sighed impatiently. Her bare feet knocked against the rung of the stool she was sitting on.

"I saw them moving in a pink rug with flowers on it yesterday." Rachel offered hopefully. "Do you think a girl lives there now?"

Her daddy chuckled and leaned over the breakfast bar to spoon strawberries onto Rachel's pancakes. "We'll find out soon enough."

Rachel wished "soon enough" would come faster. After two days, she still hadn't seen that man again. Or the other alleged occupants of the house. She came up with many theories. Maybe they were nocturnal? Like the bats that her daddy had to clear out of the attic last year. Or maybe they were allergic to the sun? There'd been boy in her first grade class who wasn't allowed outside at recess because he'd get a rash.

Rachel lay under the cherry tree in her own backyard and listened for signs of movement from next door. It was November, so she was a little chilly, but the sun was out and she was trying to spot shapes in the clouds overhead.

And then she remembered the apple tree next door and she sat up abruptly.

"Daddy!" she called excitedly through the open sliding door. She sat completely still, but received no response.

All she wanted to do was pick an apple. She was _nine_. She hardly needed parental supervision.

So Rachel stood up and walked around the cherry tree, which turned pink and floral and _fabulous_ in the spring, and skipped past the trampoline before reaching the loose slat in the fence. Soon she wouldn't be able to fit through it.

The wood was rough on her palms-even though Rachel was being extra careful because she _hated_ splinters- and she sucked in a deep breath and slithered sideways through the gap.

The Fabrays' backyard looked exactly the same as it always had, except for the large stainless steel barbecue and fabric deck chairs sitting on the patio in the shade. The grass was just as green and that fire ant nest in the corner which Rachel had stuck her hand in once looked just as dangerous.

Rachel paused next to the fence and listened for any sign of life. The apple tree was on the other side of the yard and if somebody was looking out the sliding glass door, she'd definitely be caught. When there was no movement, she cleared her throat like she was preparing for a performance, squared her shoulders, and strode confidently through the yard.

There was no point creeping along the fence like some kind of depraved young burglar. That would just raise suspicion. And her daddies had just bought her the blue sunflower dress she was wearing, so she didn't want to get it dirty.

"Excuse me."

Rachel was just reaching for the lowest apple when she heard the voice. She shrieked and whirled around, toppling into the tree trunk and then straightening immediately when she realized it was only a girl. Not a grown-up who could get her into trouble. Yet.

Rachel caught her breath and brushed off her dress while the other girl shuffled closer.

She'd obviously been sitting in the grass on the far side of the house. Rachel admired her pink dress and the plastic butterfly pin holding her light brown-almost blonde- hair back. Her eyes were hazel, framed by purple glasses, and she stood uncertainly a few feet from Rachel with her hands clasped in front of her and her eyes on Rachel's shoes.

Rachel scrunched up her nose. She had on her old, faded Barbie sandals and they probably made her look like a baby.

"Hi! I'm Rachel Berry." She greeted loudly, hoping to take charge of the situation and avoid being seen as a criminal, or as a _child_ because of her shoes. She stuck out her hand and the other girl hesitated before taking it.

Her palm was warm and gritty, like she'd been playing in the sand.

She peered at Rachel through her glasses and dug her hands into her dress pockets when she let go. "Were you going to take one of our apples?" she asked curiously. Her voice was quiet. Breathy and melodic.

Rachel nodded because there was no point denying it. How else could she explain what she was doing? Petting the tree? Maybe it was something she'd do, but this girl would just think she was even weirder.

"Just one." Rachel assured quickly. "Nobody lived here for a while and the apples were going to waste, and my daddy makes them into pies and we have them with peanut butter and stuff, so I thought it would be okay. We have cherries on our tree sometimes so if you'd like to negotiate some kind of trade, I'd be more than willing to talk it through."

The girl in the pink dress blinked-almost overwhelmed-and then smiled hesitantly. She rocked back on her heels and then glanced around the yard shyly. Rachel finally noticed that there was a big, fluffy dog trotting around, snuffling by the barbecue and the chairs.

"Um. I'm Lucy." The girl stated, finally meeting Rachel's eyes. "Fabray. Lucy Quinn Fabray."

Rachel beamed.

"And that's Frosted Flake." Lucy pointed at the dog, who caught sight of her and galloped right over. "He's a Husky. And we call him Frosty."

Rachel thought the dog looked a little bit like a wolf, but he had friendly eyes and he was a very light gray color, and Little Red Riding Hood wasn't real, so she patted his head without hesitation. He leaned into her side, almost knocking her over, and Lucy laughed.

Rachel looked up at the sound. It was much louder than Lucy's speaking voice and it made Rachel laugh as well. Lucy blushed and pushed her glasses up her nose.

"Where did you move from?" Rachel asked with a smile. She tried to balance on one of the roots at the base of the tree and Lucy did the same.

"Columbus." Lucy replied. "We had to move because of daddy's job."

Rachel nodded. "Do you like your room?"

Rachel _loved _her own room. Her dads had helped her paint it yellow a few years ago, and they let her cover the walls with her movie and Broadway posters. Everything from _The Lion King_ to _Funny Girl._ Rachel also had an extensive collection of Beanie Babies and stuffed animals. She was extremely proud of it all, but nobody had ever seen her room except for her and her dads.

Maybe Lucy would like to.

Lucy shrugged. "There's not really anything in it right now."

"Maybe I can help you decorate!" Rachel suggested enthusiastically, falling sideways into the tree trunk again. "My dads say I have a knack for that kind of thing. You could make it pink and purple, if those are your favorite colors."

Lucy looked down at her shoes, smiling with her lips pressed together. "They are." She confirmed with a nod.

"I like yellow." Rachel offered easily. "Because it's like the sun and the stars. And I'm going to be a star."

Lucy rubbed her nose and hopped onto the root closest to Rachel. "You're going to be a star?"

Rachel smiled brightly. "Yes! I'm going to be on Broadway one day. But I have to receive the proper education first, so I go to school and spend all my free time singing and dancing."

Lucy looked awed. "Broadway sounds special." She murmured.

Rachel could've kept talking about it, but her dads always reminded her to greet new people by showing interest in their activities as well. So far, she'd never been successful, but now she found herself genuinely curious about Lucy Fabray.

So Rachel nodded and smiled. "What do you like to do?"

Lucy bit the inside of her cheek and sighed. She gazed into empty space for a moment, and she put her hands on the tree to steady herself while she balanced on the roots.

"Read." She finally admitted. Very quietly. "I like reading. And playing with Frosty. He really likes it when we play tug of war with towels even though we're not supposed to."

Rachel laughed. Lucy looked up, surprised, and smiled at her, and Rachel noticed that it made her hazel eyes crinkle before Lucy pressed her lips back together.

"You can have an apple." Lucy offered sweetly, tucking her hair behind her ears.

Rachel's heart swelled. She didn't know _why_. Probably because she was receiving an apple this time without having to _steal_ it. She plucked one off the only branch she could reach and then pointed above her head.

"Do you want one?" she asked, unsure if perhaps Lucy had been indulging in apples all weekend because she now had an almost endless supply of them in her backyard.

Lucy shook her head.

"Well, you can come over if my dad makes this into a pie." Rachel offered.

Lucy smiled. She stuck her hands back in her dress pockets and fidgeted with her fingers. "You-you have a trampoline, right? I saw it through the fence."

Rachel sighed exaggeratedly. The story of her trampoline was exasperating. A subject of much amusement in her house.

She'd asked for a karaoke machine for her birthday one year, and her dads had gotten it for her, partly because they could use it as well to belt out Spice Girls in the living room. But they'd also gotten her a trampoline because they said she had too much energy and bouncing around would help to burn it all off. So she bounced around like they wanted, promptly broke her arm, and never went on the trampoline again.

She nodded for Lucy's benefit. "Yes, I do have a trampoline."

Lucy watched her carefully, biting her lip and rocking up on her toes a bit.

Rachel shook herself out of the memory of having her neon pink cast cut off while squeezing her daddy's hand because she was absolutely sure that they'd accidentally take her arm with it, and grinned at Lucy. "Do you want to come over and use it?" she asked, eyebrows raised eagerly at the prospect of playing with a new friend.

Rachel could just be a popcorn ball. What were the chances she'd break _both_ arms before she was ten years old?

Lucy looked contemplative for a moment, but finally she shook her head. "No, that's okay. I-"

Rachel grabbed her arm before she could protest further. This girl obviously wanted to play on a trampoline, but was trying to be polite or well-behaved or something that didn't really matter at the moment.

"Let's go." Rachel instructed brightly, stepping carefully over the roots. "I usually just climb through the fence, as you must have seen."

Lucy laughed and allowed Rachel to drag her across the yard. Frosty trotted after them, and then crawled through the fence as well. Rachel's backyard was far more cluttered than Lucy's. The trampoline took up about a quarter of it, and then there was the cherry tree, and her daddy had impulsively taken up archery for a week so the remnants of that excursion sat in another corner.

Rachel went straight to the trampoline and climbed onto it, realizing belatedly that she was in a _dress_ and that was not exactly appropriate. She flushed and turned around to hold a hand out for Lucy, but Lucy was turned away and smiling at the cherry tree.

"Your name is Berry and you have a cherry tree." She remarked softly, amused, when she saw Rachel watching her. "Cherry Berry."

Lucy scrunched up her face after she said that and her ears turned bright red, but Rachel just laughed loudly because her dads used the phrase "cherry Berry" all the time. She waved her hand around until Lucy finally took it.

When they were both on the trampoline, Rachel crawled away from the blue border to sit in the center with her legs crossed. Lucy sort of pranced lightly around her.

"Aren't you going to jump?" she questioned, keeping her hands in her pockets to hold her dress down when she bounced.

Rachel looked up at her. "I'd prefer not to. I broke my arm on here when I was eight, so I'll just sit here and sing or talk or something, if you don't mind."

Lucy stared at her like she had two heads.

Rachel made a "go ahead" motion with her hand. "You can bounce. It's okay."

Lucy's expression didn't change. Rachel could see the shadow of Frosty running around under the trampoline and nipping where the fabric dipped down. It would be like Whack-A-Mole when they actually started bouncing.

"Please bounce with me, Rachel." Lucy pressed, sliding her glasses back up her nose. "I'll make sure you don't fall off. I promise."

Rachel studied her thoughtfully, and Lucy looked completely honest, like her week would be ruined if Rachel wouldn't just _bounce_ with her, so Rachel pulled herself to her feet and stood in the center of the trampoline.

Lucy smiled at her, sun reflecting off the little plastic butterfly in her hair. "Do you…want to hold my hand?"

Rachel nodded. Definitely. What were the chances that they'd _both_ fall off and _both_ break their arms? She took Lucy's hand, which was a little cool because the sun was dropping in the sky, and she held on tightly. They bounced around in a circle, laughing when they collided or were yanked apart or shot into the sky because of inexplicable trampoline forces.

"What school are you going to?" Rachel asked, smiling because she'd been knocked to her knees while Lucy went five feet in the air.

Lucy stopped to push her glasses back up her nose and fix the strap on her sandal. "Eagle Point Elementary. I don't know what my teacher's name is yet."

"Me too!" Rachel exclaimed. She let go of Lucy's hands and toppled backwards to take off her own sandals. She tossed them over the edge of the trampoline and Frosty ran away with one in his mouth. "My teacher's name is Mrs. White. Maybe we'll be in the same class! We can have lunch together and play with the jump ropes in recess! And we can sing on music day, and be art partners!"

Lucy grinned. But then the sliding door opened loudly and her smile dropped and she clasped her hands in front of her dress and looked down at her feet.

"Uh-oh, Leroy! There are two of them now!" Rachel's dad proclaimed, strolling out onto the patio in his sweats and wooly socks. Rachel giggled and scooted to the edge of the trampoline to introduce her dads to her new friend.

"Oh _no_! Where did this one come from?" Leroy questioned with a smile, waving at Lucy. "Rachel, you didn't lure her in with promises of sweets, right? Because your dad ate all the cookies and there was absolutely no stopping him."

"Leroy, contain yourself, please." Hiram stated, leaning against the trampoline and sticking a hand out towards Lucy. "Hi, honey." He said with a smile, shoving his husband away. "I'm Rachel's dad, Mr. H, because Mr. Berry just gets confusing, right? Too many Berrys in this house."

Hiram winked and Lucy smiled slightly and shook his hand.

"Dad, daddy," Rachel decided to take control of the situation before she was completely embarrassed. "This is Lucy Quinn Fabray, and she likes to read and she's in fourth grade and she might be in my class for the rest of the year but she doesn't know yet, and that's her dog Frosty, and he took my shoe and I don't know where he put it."

Leroy and Hiram nodded amicably, used to processing large amounts of information at once.

"And I'm Mr. L." Leroy greeted, taking Lucy's hand. "Hello, miss Lucy."

"Hi." Lucy murmured, smoothing down her dress. "It's nice to meet you both."

Leroy's eyes widened comically. "Such _manners_. Why can't ours do that, Hiram? Did we not train her properly?"

Rachel huffed. She grabbed the apple that had been rolling around in the middle of the trampoline and just _barely_ stopped herself from hurling it at her daddy's head. Hiram caught the motion and raised his eyebrows. He held his arms out and Rachel approached cautiously, and then erupted in giggles when he grabbed her and spun her around.

Hiram set her back on the trampoline, took the apple, and kissed her forehead.

"Next time, come and get us, honey, and we'll use the front door like normal people and meet _all_ of the Fabrays, okay?"

Rachel nodded a little sheepishly. Lucy nudged her in the ribs with her elbow, and Rachel knocked her back.

"And be _careful._" Leroy insisted, smiling at their interaction. "No more crazy dance moves that send you flying over the edge, Rachel. We don't need our baby breaking more bones."

"I completely agree, Daddy." Rachel nodded sagely.

Her dads turned to walk back inside, and Rachel and Lucy laughed when they just barely managed to keep Frosty from following through the door.

"So do you miss your friends yet?" Rachel asked breathlessly when they started jumping again. "Or your house in Columbus?"

Lucy chewed on the inside of her cheek and shook her head wordlessly. Rachel watched her, but it was hard to catch somebody's gaze when they were jumping up and down so randomly. She understood though. If she left Lima right now, there wouldn't really be anything she'd miss. Except her yellow bedroom and her nice dance teacher.

"Do you have lots of friends?" Lucy asked a moment later, smiling when Rachel stopped bouncing to see how dirty the bottom of her feet were.

Rachel shrugged. "Just…classmates and people from my dance class. Nobody really comes over or anything." She looked up and smiled at Lucy, trying to show her the soles of her feet. "Except for you."

Lucy grimaced at the dirt on Rachel's feet. "That's gross."

Rachel scrunched up her nose.

"I think I should go back." Lucy stated regretfully. She played with the hem of her dress while she sat on the trampoline. "My parents might be wondering where I am."

Rachel nodded, already saddened. "Will you come back tomorrow? Or maybe I can come over and help you with your room, and I'll use the front door this time."

Lucy giggled. "If my parents say it's okay." She rolled off the trampoline and straightened her dress and pushed her glasses up her nose.

"Wait!" Rachel called, hurrying to climb down. She smiled when Lucy turned around. She reached up and fixed the butterfly clip in Lucy's hair, and then stepped back, blushing. "I just want to be sure, you'll be my friend, right?"

Lucy's eyes sparkled behind her glasses. She bit her lip like she was trying to stop from smiling, and she met Rachel's gaze. "Yeah. I will. And Frosty too."

Rachel nodded, relieved, and watched Lucy go. Frosty climbed through the fence first and Lucy followed, almost tripping on the slat because she was waving goodbye to Rachel.

Rachel was very glad she'd decided to steal an apple today.


End file.
